A while back, in October of last year, I wrote a blog post about writing about characters with disabilities.
I wish to expand on that subject here, and talk about tropes specifically, especially in regard to how they are used in the realm of speculative fiction. For those of you who don’t know, this is an umbrella term for fiction writing that falls into categories such as fantasy and science fiction.
Of course, there are more genres and subgenres underneath those terms as well, but I will not go into that now; I want to talk about what is known as tropes.
What are Tropes?
A trope in fiction is essentially defined as a commonly used theme or literary device.
Here is Merriam-Webster online’s example of the word “trope” used in a sentence:
“a screenplay that reads like a catalog of mystery-thriller tropes”
On LiteraryTerms.net, they explain that one of the great tropes in science fiction is a metaphor, the “space is the sea” trope, which includes terms like spaceship, star fleet, or the ranks “Captain” and “Admiral,” used in outer space contexts.
This article goes on to say that this trope is used to “create drama and feeling by comparing the experience of space-travelers to that of sailors in the endless and very dangerous seas.”
Tropes on the Experience of Disability
There have been recurrent tropes in speculative fiction, that feature characters with disabilities, for decades.
One is that a character who has a disability if offered the chance would elect to eliminate, or at least alter in some way, their disability.
Take the classic novel, Flowers for Algernon. That story–and so many others–for decades, in a way suggested that disability is something that should be–or at least could be–altered or augmented through advances in science. Because he had an intellectual disability, the main character Charlie had surgery to try and make himself smarter.
I think a lot of characters with disabilities would not elect to do so. Most real people with disabilities are fine with the way they are.
Whether or not this trope stops, I feel that it can be handled differently than it has been in the past. Because many people now know that people with disabilities, even if they are aware of their differences, are proud of themselves and their achievements, and do not dwell on their differences, or view themselves as “broken.”
In the same vein, there is another common trope used in literature about a character with a chronic illness or other disability, that can be called “better dead than disabled.”
There are so many others, yet they are all essentially what author and speaker L.M. Kugler says is “anything that reduces a character to the sum total of his/her disability.” Kugler also says using these tropes is a mistake. “Nobody would do that with another character trait. We call that a flat character. It’s writing 101.”
In addition, Kugler says, “disabled characters are often written as either overcoming saints or people to be pitied. Where are the ordinary people dealing with ordinary things who just happen to be blind, deaf, or impaired in some way, their impairment simply adding an interesting facet to their life?”
Since her daughter has Spina Bifida, Kugler has gotten to know many mobility -impaired adults who have let her into their community. She said that she has learned a lot about what life is like for adults who use wheelchairs.
“There are certain things that only disabled people know,” she said. “Sure an AB (able-bodied) person can close their eyes and imagine what it might be to be blind, but they won’t know the terms blind people use, the slang for things, for example, that will give the story realism.”
“It is key that writers do their research by plugging into the community of people they want to write about. Make connections online or connect to advocacy groups. People are more than happy to help. Disabled groups want to see characters like them that are actually…well, like them.”
“The recent movie Me Before You was met with [a] huge outcry in the disabled community,” Kugler said. “I personally have not gone to see it because I would not give it my money. Neither would many in the community. A disabled man wants to die (even after he finds love) because he can’t find life worth living without his body the way it used to be? Not really the way most disabled people feel and not how they want to be represented. Yet that is all too often the way it goes.”
“And that is how they prefer to be labeled. Disabled. not Handicapable or whatever. There is no shame in the label at least for the physically impaired. For the mentally ill, the stigma is still very much there and there are movements going strong to help eliminate that.”
Ending Stigmas in Fiction
Kugler says that writers can help to end stigmas regarding characters with disabilities when writing speculative fiction by writing characters that actually disabled people can relate to.
“The primary method is by involving people with disabilities before writing. Interview the community. Contact Facebook groups or community activist groups in your local area as sources. Having persons with disabilities represented in fiction is important. Having persons with disabilities represented well (meaning authentically) in fiction is vital to helping readers understand and connect with those characters in a pivotal way.”
Kugler says that writers can apply such knowledge in a way that it helps spin perspective, thereby opening doors for conversation and/or new ways of thinking about disability and the people living with that disability.
Thanks for reading!
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Heather Dewey Pettet, Author/Editor/Artist 